Improved leather-shitting machine



- T0 ALL WHOM IT MAY OONOERN:

'ALFRED DAW'ES, OF HUDSON, MASSACHSETTS.

Lemm Pamir NO. 70,175, dazafz Omar 29, 1807.

IMPROVED LEATHER-SPLITTING MACHINE.

tlgt tlgehule nart tt tt in tlpsie Estars utmt mh making ;mt m5 the sima.

Be it known that I, ALFRED DAWEs, of Hudson, in the county of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Leather-Splittingl Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which a'ccompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufl'icient to enable those skilled in the art to practise it.

This machine opcratcs bythe action of two feeding-rolls to push or feed the skin to be split upon or against the edge of a knife, to which are impartcd rapid hut short reciprocations, the organization beingsuch as to adapt the machine to the splitting of sheep and other skins, which have not sufiicient tenacity .to admit of their being drawu or pulled against the edge of a stationary knife. The drawings, in which is illustrated an embodimcnt of my invention, show in- Figure 1, a sectional elevation of my machine, the section being taken on the line x w, seen' in Figure 2,, which is a plan of said machine, of which Figure 3 is an end elevation', i I

Figure 4 being an elcvation in detail of the lower roll, which is` pcculiar in its'construction.

The cheeks or sidcs of the frame which supports the mechanism are marked a a, connected and sustained in relative position by braces and ties b. The boxes c and d, which receive thejournals of the upper and lower rolls, are fitted so that they may slide freely within suitable ways or guides a e, forming part of the side frames. In the cross-pieces or caps which connect the guides e c, are screws gg, by the manipulation. of which the upper roll L is adjusted with reference to the knife i. The boxes d, of the lower roll, are supported on Springs j, so as to allow the lower roll to yield with reference to the knife-edge, and with reference to thel upper roll to admit the passage of leather or skins or varying thickness between the two rolls while feeding to the knife' edge. 7: is a bed secured to the side framcs, its purpose being to form, with the adjustable strip l, a suitable way in which the earriage'm may be reciprocated, said carriage being dove-tailed into its seat, as clearly shown in fig. 1. 'This carriage has a eontinuation marked n, proyided at its end with a friction-roll, o, which enters a cylinder-cam, made with any desired number of throws so that asthe cam is rotated the carriage mis directly reciprocated thcrefrom. Theknife z' is mounted on this carriage m so that it can be adjusted towards and from the plane passingi'tlro'irgli theaxes of both rolls, the holes in the knife, through which the screws pass to hold it down upon the carriagc, being slotted, and set-screws being provided in a ledge oi' ears forming part of the carriage, which act upon the .back of' the -knife to force it forward to keep it from yielding back from the rolls.

To operate the machine, power is applied directly to the cam-shaft o, this shaft bearing avgear, 1a, which meshes into an intermediate gear; q, which drivcs a gear on the lower roll, which in turn drives the upper roll /L through the gear 7' on itsshaft. Inpractice with machines for splitting skins I so proportion the gearing and the cam that for eachdouble rcciprocation-of the knife the skin is fed but aboutian eighth of an inch towards the knfc-edge, and I; find that very short reciprocations, ,say from one-eighth to a quarter of an inch, enable me to make a great number of them per minute, and conscquently to have a'rapid advance of the skin. While this machine is quite effective for use in splitting some kinds of leather, when organized with a smooth or fiuted solid lower roll, I have found that for some kinds of skins or leather a compound roll, such as is shown in the drawings, increases the eificiency of the machine. This compound roll is made up of a roll. o r shaft, s, a slceve, t, of elastic, yielding material, vulcanized rubber,- for example, and rings u, of metal or other suitable hard material. A compound roll so made acts by allowing one or more of the rings or Sections, u, to yield to permit'passage of small inequalities, such as are apt to be found on the fiesh side of skins, which yielding is eifected by the compression of the sleeve t at and near the places of greatest pressure. While this compound roll is shown as so mounted that the wh'ole roll can yield as a unit by compression ot' Springs j, it is capable of Operating efl`ectively, in connection with the other parts of the machine, upon some kinds of Skins, when the springs j are omitted. When the length of the reciprocations of the knife are as small as I find it advantageous to make them, then any loss of the'motion which ought to be imparted by the cam toA the knife hears a large proportion to the cntirc stroke of the knife; thcrefore, to pror'idc against lost motion conscqucnt upon the wear of the cam, or the periphery of the roll o, in the continuation a of the carriage m, I make the cam in two parts, 'w and y, each provided with a sctscrew, opcrative on shaft o, so that either part of the cam can be adjusted stuntiolly as and for the purpose speeified.

with respect 'to theother port and with respect to the roll z'. The direction of motion impzu'ted to the rolls i such as to cause a, skin, hide, or side of leether to bo drawn in between them, in the (lirection of the arrow seen in fig. 1, pushing the material to be split against the edge of the knife, cansing the severed part of uniform thicl'- ness to pass over the knife, and the port of irrcgular thickness to pass below the knife, the thiekness of the upper split being determined by the relation of the edge of the knife to the upper roll, which relation may be modified by adjustment of the.upper roll by the serews g, or by the adjustment of the lmfe on its carriage, or by both adjustments combined.

I elaim the Ieather-splitting machine, consti'ueted, orrnnged, and Operating substztntiully us described.

Also the ,compound roll, eonsisting of the central roll or shaft, the sleeve of yielding elestic material cover` ing Said roll or shaft, end thevouter rings of hard material, armnged to operate as set forth.

Also the construction of a cylinder oem in tnfo'separate pieces, adjustztble with respect to each other sub- ALFRED DWES. Witnesses:

E. F. IIODGES,

J'Arnas SrANmsn. 

